Healthy & Vibrant Communities

A fundamental responsibility of the university is to build healthy and vibrant communities on our campuses, in Mississippi, and beyond. Diversity and excellence go hand in hand and are mutually supportive goals for building a vibrant university community. Through community-engaged scholarship and collaboration, the University of Mississippi touches lives and communities from the campuses to communities across the state and around the world. Vibrant and healthy communities generate leadership opportunities; embrace diversity; connect people and resources; promote wellness, safety, and health; enhance economic well-being, and foster a caring environment that enables academic excellence to thrive. Our faculty, staff, and students can make a positive difference in the lives of people and communities beyond the University.

Transformative Initiative:

M Partner

We will develop and implement a program we call M Partner as a powerful and innovative partnership to build healthy and vibrant communities. M Partner will be a community partnership program that aligns university-wide creativity and talent with community opportunities and challenges. Drawing upon engagement, research, and educational and outreach efforts across the entire spectrum of the University, the M Partner initiative will incorporate the full breadth of University of Mississippi talents, including health and medicine, science and engineering, business and entrepreneurship, education, arts and culture, the humanities, law and public policy, journalism and new media, and public planning.

M Partner will demonstrate how an institution of higher learning can apply its expertise collaboratively to have a measurable impact upon a community, and how a community can better inform university scholarship and curriculum.

Metrics:

Increase in community-engaged scholarship

Participation in service learning

Goal:

Increase Diversity and Excellence

Promote a welcoming and diverse campus environment by recruiting and sustaining excellence among students, faculty, and staff

Action:

Promote competitive recruitment and retention of a diverse community of excellent faculty and staff by effective hiring practices that focus upon the key traits for success

Action:

Provide bridge and immersive student experiences to help talented students transition to a university environment

Metrics:

Diversity of faculty, staff, and student populations

Freshman retention rates and four- and six-year graduation rates of students from underrepresented groups

Goal:

Educate and Engage Global Citizens

Foster student awareness of international perspectives and interaction with people from around the world, both on our campus and abroad, in recognition of the value of global citizenship and understanding

Action:

Enhance study abroad programs and opportunities for students

Action:

Increase international undergraduate student enrollment

Action:

Expand faculty engagement abroad

Metrics:

Number of students participating in study abroad

International student enrollment

Number of faculty with international collaborations and teaching experiences

Goal:

Increase Entrepreneurship and External Connections

Entrepreneurship is a valuable mechanism for translating new ideas and visions into practical advances that make the world a better place. By engaging in meaningful public and private partnerships, as well as other connections with external communities, the university increases the positive impact of its creative outputs, and, in turn, such efforts can yield resources to support further activity

Action:

Create a strategy or an organizational unit to support connections to businesses and other external entities that will support research programs, academic programs, and creative initiatives

Metrics:

Number of corporate agreements and private partnerships for research programs and creative initiatives

Number of academic programs with corporate engagement

Level of support from private partnerships

Goal:

Foster an Intellectual and Engaged Environment

Create a compelling environment of creativity, considering innovations in campus space and increased visibility of scholarly and creative achievements, that fosters intellectual engagement among the community of faculty, students, and external partners. Our overall goal is to encourage all to think critically, explore and discuss ideas, collaborate on research and creative works, and engage with external partners

Action:

Develop programs that build “bright pathways” for students to engage in intellectual pursuits with faculty, staff, and students